How To Deal With Difficult People

Image by lacie babenco

There is no way you can make difficult people change and suddenly become sweet and amenable. Such change can only take place when the individuals concerned desire it and work towards it. As you can’t change them, the only thing to do is to change your own reaction to them.

Think before you react. There is a world difference between flying into a screaming rage and telling the other person (in a calm, controlled manner) ‘I feel angry about that.’ The latter is the assertive way and is far more effective as your listener is more likely to take notice. If you scream and shout, he will simply scream back and in the end neither of you will take any notice of what the other is saying.

THE CHATTERBOX

Did You Ever Have A Job As A Battery Chicken?

Image by hisks

I don’t know what it is with me – but whenever I ended up in a horrible job, I started to see myself, colleagues and supervisors as animals.

The battery chicken

Once I worked for an IT recruitment company where all employees would sit at close range side by side with a team leader right in front of them. I felt like a battery chicken with hectic and loud clucking sounds all around me. We would sit for hours on our feathery butts, deprived of any kind of personal freedom of expression, trying to produce as many contracts as possible.

If you were successful you had the honour of sounding the company gong as a sign of personal achievement. I still have to laugh about it when I think about the keen Uber-cockerel that had just secured three deals. He would stride up to the gong, head up high and sound the gong three times, with every sound his chicken breast would swell a bit more.